Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-367) and index

Once in Royal David's City -- 'Alarmingly clever' -- Once a Paulina -- Never surrender -- Holes in coal -- Woman of the Left Bank -- Seine v. Strand -- What is life? -- Joining the circus -- Such a funny lab -- Undeclared race -- Eureka and goodbye -- Escaping notice -- Acid next door -- O my America -- New friends, new enemies -- Postponed departure -- Private health, public health -- Clarity and perfection -- Epilogue; life after death

In March 1953, Maurice Wilkins of King's College, London, announced the departure of his obstructive colleague Rosalind Franklin to rival Cavendish Laboratory scientist Francis Crick. But it was too late. Franklin's unpublished data and crucial photograph of DNA had already been seen by her competitors at the Cambridge University lab. With the aid of these, plus their own knowledge, Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the molecule that genes are composed of--DNA, the secret of life. This is a powerful story of a remarkable simpleminded, forthright and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century

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